The Rural Voice, 2003-10, Page 65PERTH ifilk
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Pat Louwagie, President
519-393-6424
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA.
How do you remain optimistic in difficult times?
Any opinions expressed herein may
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
This is my second attempt at writing
this newsletter. Usually I can think of
two or three topics that I can write a
700 —800 word article which won't
bore you to tears. This month, nothing.
Lots of little things. Price (that's
little?). Meat and bonemeal. COOL.
Hog marketing. All the regulations
coming down the tube. Lots of little
things. Nothing to write a column on.
Good thing I don't have to do this
for a living. Do you ever wonder how
Paul Mahon, editor at Ontario Farmer
(or any editor, for that matter), comes
up with something to write about every
week? And yet, that is one of the first
things I read when I pick up that paper.
Perth councillors say that this column is
one of the first things that they look to
when they get this magazine. Talk
about pressure.
The Communications and
Resolutions committee of the Perth
Association has the responsibility to
provide this column every month for
The Rural Voice. It is totally voluntary
to sign up for this committee. There are
other committees. But usually five or
six people sign up for this one. I guess
we assume that we can actually write.
We must also think that we have
something to say. This may or may not
be true. It is actually quite challenging
because you are putting your thoughts
on paper, for others to read, to agree or
disagree with, to judge. That's the scary
part.
And yet, that's also the challenge.
This year, one of the councillors
suggested that everyone in the
association should have to write one of
these. Interesting idea. Great way of
laying bare what people are thinking.
Isn't that one of the main reasons for
farm producer organizations, to hear
the opinions and ideas from producers,
to debate the pros and cons? It is also
one of their bigger challenges.
2003 has not turned out to be one of
our industry's better years. The price
has very lacklustre for a second year.
Profitability for producers and
processors has been hard to come by.
Amazing what a couple of cents
difference in the exchange rate can do
to your pocketbook. Our industry has
changed from many producers and
processors selling hogs through our
own price determination system (the
Dutch auction) and selling product
mainly into our own market, to one
which has seen fewer players becoming
very dependent on the world for its
markets. We have become somewhat
an appendage of the U.S. industry since
we derive our price from it for our
product and for many of the
commodities that we use, and depend
on it so heavily for exports.
Our processors have had some big
challenges this year, as the exchange
hits them every bit as hard as it hits us
when they are trying to sell our product
abroad. They have had several
challenges from within our own
borders, with an excess amount of
cheaper beef available, as well as pork
flowing into Ontario from Quebec.
The meat packing industry is as cut-
throat a business as our own, as I'm
sure any 3P director can tell you.
Packers are trying to reduce losses by
reducing slaughter numbers. Several
Pool Plus block contracts which are
coming due this fall are not being
renewed at this time. This will put
pressure on Pool Plus returns because
these pigs will have to be trucked
farther afield, increasing costs. Prices
offered on direct contracts are being
rachetted down to the 100 per cent
range. We are not an island onto
ourselves, and many factors here and
elsewhere affect what happens to our
price and our profitability.
How do we deal with these factors
when it seems that, more and more,
they appear to be out of our control?
We can't influence exchange rates, but
we see how this one factor has affected
us this year. How is Country of Origin
Labelling going to change our industry?
Will we end up increasing finishing
space in Ontario? Will all the new
regulations coming down the tubes —
environment and nutrient management,
feed manufacturing regs, water source
protection, quality assurance. etc —
reduce our competitive edge? As
Canadian producers, we take pride in
producing safe and wholesome food,
but are we caving in to more and more
regulations which reduce the
profitability of our industry and for no
good reason?
I hate being pessimistic when 1 write
these articles. It is easy to be
pessimistic. It takes effort to be an
optimist. One of the things I remember
from the price crash of '98 was how
one market analylist told us that you
knew you were at the bottom of the
market when all you heard was bad
news. I won't forget this. Market
psychology. Very interesting. The
struggle is in forcing yourself to think
the other way. Yes, it seems we have
lots of challenges. The challenges are
always harder when the price hasn't
been that great. And yet, Ontario has
been able to buck the trends. We still
have many different sizes of operations,
a variety of production systems.
We have been able to keep a
marketing board intact when they have
gone by the wayside in other
jurisdictions. And for the most part, 1
think that producers are glad to have
Ontario Pork to represent them. The
board has some of its own challenges,
such as service fee redistribution,
councillor reduction, as well as all the
industry issues that it deals with. How
Larry, Curtiss and the rest deal with all
the things thrown in their lap is beyond
me, but they continue on. Is there really
any better way?
— Submitted by Jim Van Herk
PERTH COUNTY PORK
PRODUCERS' PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage • Bacon Burgers
• Teriyaki Pork Steaks • Vittorio's BBO Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM:
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora)' 348-8167
Walter Bosch (Monkton) 356-9000
Ted Keller (Mitchell) 348-9836
OCTOBER 2003 61